Conservative Daily News » House Billshttp://www.conservativedailynews.com
The best conservative political news, analysis and opinion articles written by a collection of citizen journalists. Covering a range of important topics in blogs, op-ed, and news posts, these upstanding patriots are bringing back American exceptionalism with every entry..Sun, 01 Mar 2015 18:00:40 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011 Breakdownhttp://www.conservativedailynews.com/2011/12/middle-class-tax-relief-and-job-creation-act-of-2011-breakdown/
http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2011/12/middle-class-tax-relief-and-job-creation-act-of-2011-breakdown/#commentsWed, 14 Dec 2011 13:24:33 +0000http://conservativedailynews.com/?p=30491On Dec. 13, 2011 the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3630 -The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011, by a vote of 234-192. H.R.3630 includes extending the payroll tax cuts demanded by President Obama, with a provision that calls for the speedy approval to build the Keystone XL pipeline, which would produce an estimated 20,000 much-needed jobs immediately upon approval, with an additional hundreds of thousands of jobs created in related areas of employment in the near future. To out-of-work Americans struggling to provide for their families during the current recession, the approval of the KXL pipeline should appear to be an easy decision. President Obama, however, has taken a different view, in the fact that he has threatened to veto the tax relief extension, along with the unemployment benefit extensions all because H.R. 3630 contains the KXL pipeline provision.

Breakdown of H.R. 3630

House Speaker John Boehner details H.R. 3630 from his Speaker’s blog, that contains the following bullet points:

The Middle Class Tax Relief & Job Creation Act (read the bill | summary) up for a vote this week extends the payroll tax break for working families and extends and reforms federal unemployment insurance (UI) benefits – as requested by the president. It also includes job creation initiatives supported by President Obama in his economic plan, such as:

ENCOURAGING JOB CREATORS TO INVEST & GROW: The bill extends 100 percent business expensing through 2012 to make it easier for employers, small and large, to invest now in new machinery and equipment, grow their businesses, and create new jobs. [see the president’s plan]
EXPANDING ACCESS TO HIGH-SPEED WIRELESS: The measure includes spectrum auctions to advance wireless broadband service, bring interoperable broadband communications to public safety officials, spur billions in private investment, and create thousands of jobs – consistent with Rep. Greg Walden’s (R-OR) Jumpstarting Opportunity with Broadband Spectrum (JOBS) Act. [see the president’s plan]
Other job creation provisions included in the bill would speed up approval of the Keystone XL energy project – which has broad bipartisan support – and stop excessive federal regulations that threaten job growth. Speaker Boehner said, “It is my hope that the president will accept this measure so that Americans can see that we are still capable of working together to the meet the challenges we face.”

The Heritage Foundation outlines the six provisions of H.R. 3630 and summarizes it’s final costs in an article from The Foundry. Here are their bullet points on H.R. 3630: (shortened versions)

Title I of the bill gets the government out of the way of a pipeline project so the private sector can create some jobs. It includes approval of the KXL pipeline project, forcing the EPA in issuing new rules governing commercial and industrial boilers, to allow reasonable time for development and implementation of the rules. In addition, Title I of the bill encourages job-creating investment by extending for another year the option for immediate tax deductibility of certain capital asset purchases.

Title II of the bill extends for a year the employee payroll tax reduction. Title II also extends the unemployment compensation program, but with appropriate reforms to help the unemployed find jobs and to begin to tailor the overall program to changes in the economy. Title II extends for two years the forestalling of sudden automatic cuts in Medicare payments to physicians that would otherwise occur under the law (often called the “Doc Fix”). The bill also extends for a year the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program, one of the 70 federal welfare programs in need of integrated reform (see H.R. 1167/S. 1904).

Title III of the bill contains reforms to the federal flood insurance program that previously passed the House of Representatives on a bipartisan basis. Among other things, the bill adjusts the financing of the program to improve its actuarial soundness.

Title IV of the bill addresses the use of spectrum for communications purposes, including public safety purposes. Although a market-oriented approach to allocating public spectrum for public safety users would encourage efficient use of spectrum more than the bill’s approach of allocating dedicated spectrum to them, the bill uses market mechanisms to good effect in many of the other spectrum-related provisions.

Title V of the bill takes some action to reduce the increase in the federal deficit.The bill increases the mortgage guarantee fee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge for taking on the credit risk of loans, and takes a small step — small in comparison to the scope of the Medicare reforms needed but in the right direction — to adjust the Medicare program. Perhaps most importantly, the bill recognizes a new Medicare principle that, if the Government continues to subsidize premiums for Medicare beneficiaries, only those beneficiaries who have an economic need for the subsidy should receive it; thus, the bill increases the Medicare premiums paid by high-income beneficiaries, an element of the Heritage plan for Saving the American Dream. Title V of the bill also increases over time the amounts that Members of Congress and federal employees pay into their retirement programs and adjusts the basis on which the programs calculates retirement benefits. In addition, Title V reduces federal spending by eliminating for 2013 cost of living adjustments for Members of Congress and the federal civilian workforce. In the category of minor oddities, Title V imposes a 100% tax on excess unemployment compensation paid to millionaires; it would seem more appropriate for Congress to prevent receipt or require return of benefits, rather than imposing a tax to recover the funds.

Title VI of the bill makes technical changes to payment of corporate estimated tax, timing of certain fee payments in international trade, Senate procedure, and budget-scoring of the legislation after enactment.

The Congressional Budget Office reported that “enacting H.R. 3630 would change revenues and direct spending to produce increases in the deficit of $166.8 billion in fiscal year 2012 and $25.3 billion over the 2012-2021 period.”

Check out the all-important last line in The Foundry’s article about H.R. 3630. It increases the deficit by $166.8 billion dollars in 2012, then adds another $25.3 billion dollars a year to the federal deficit for the next 10 years!

In summary we see that Speaker Boehner once again lays out the lovely-sounding Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011 as “giving away” tax relief and creating jobs while ignoring the deficit increases inherent in this bill. What part of the limited government by deficit and debt reduction mandates [that was given to the GOP by We the People in the 2010 mid-term elections] does Mr.Speaker not understand here? While H.R. 3630 gives President Obama and Harry Reid’s Senate Democrats everything they have demanded by way of increased debt-spending, this bill looks more like political theater than it does anything else. Does Speaker Boehner think that true conservatives are somehow going to be pleasedwith the billions of deficit increases in this bill?

Barack Obama says he will veto it so he can pander to the green-weenies that demand we increase our dependency on foreign oil while sitting on trillions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, resulting in the now-famous “skyrocketing electricity prices” Obama previously promised us. Add to that the fact that Senate obstructionist Democrat Harry Reid claims that this bill is DOA in the Senate, and we are truly, once again on the infamous bridge to nowhere, as far as moving this country forward is concerned.

“Prospects for a year-end congressional compromise on key tax and spending legislation grew more complicated,” the Washington Post reports, “as the Republican House passed a controversial version of a payroll tax cut extension despite a veto threat from the White House.”

“The increasingly contentious tax dispute threatens to derail what had been an emerging compromise on separate legislation to fund the government through next September, raising the specter of a possible government shutdown this weekend if the conflict is not resolved by Friday.”

2012 just can’t get here fast enough!

]]>http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2011/12/middle-class-tax-relief-and-job-creation-act-of-2011-breakdown/feed/0Desperate Democrats Attempt to Ban Photo ID's at Voting Pollshttp://www.conservativedailynews.com/2011/11/desperate-democrats-attempt-to-ban-photo-ids-at-voting-polls/
http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2011/11/desperate-democrats-attempt-to-ban-photo-ids-at-voting-polls/#commentsMon, 07 Nov 2011 12:50:12 +0000http://conservativedailynews.com/?p=25880 On Nov. 2nd 2011 Rep. Keith Ellison ( D-Mn) proposed House bill H.R 3316: Current Title: “To prohibit election officials from requiring individuals to provide photo identification as a condition of obtaining or casting a ballot in an election for Federal office or registering to vote in elections for Federal office, and for other purposes.”

This supposed House Representative in the United States Congress wants to allow anyone to just walk up to the voting polls and vote for the people who run this country without showing a photo ID, thus preventing election officials from actually checking on their eligibility to vote.

Mr. Ellison may as well stand up in Congress and give a speech that expresses his desires to promote the corruption of our electoral system, because that is what this bill and it’s companion bill would do if passed. Among those expressing support for this attempt to open the door to widespread vote fraud in the upcoming elections is further exposed when we see that H.R. 3316 is cosponsored by Reps. Yvette Clarke of New York, Marcia Fudge of Ohio, Raul Grijalva of Arizona, impeached corrupt former Federal Judge Alcee Hastings of Florida, Barbara Lee of California, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin and Jose Serrano of New York.

Mr Ellison also had the courage to note that such “fraud” seems to be occurring only within historically Democratic voting blocs like minorities and students. Also of note is the fact that every single one of the above-mentioned co-sponsors for the enable-vote-fraud-to-corrupt-our-elections bills H.R. 3316-17… are Liberal Democrats. [ Add those folks to the list of tyrants who need to be run out of our Congress in 2012, especially if you live in their districts.]

H.R 3316 and 3317, would enable the same widespread vote fraud that we have seen previously, starting in 2006, where we saw the now infamous Minnesota U.S. Senate race won by Democrat Al Franken by a meager 312 votes.

Dan McGrath, of the watchdog group the Minnesota Majority had this to say about the State of Minnesota’s recent explosion of proven voter fraud in just the past 5 years, starting in 2006: “Never in our state’s history did the words ‘every vote counts’ ring so true. However, a cloud of doubt still hangs over the results. Post-election analysis showed that hundreds of ineligible felons voted in the election. Over 17,000 more ballots were counted than voters accounted for as having voted in our Statewide Voter Registration System. Over 23,000 addresses provided by Election Day registrants could not be verified. Voter rolls contained the names of non-citizens and deceased individuals,” the organization reported. Which party benefited from that voter fraud in 2006 in Minnesota? Why Democrats, of course.

Minnesota isn’t the only state that is waging a battle to protect the rights of legal voting U.S. Citizens in trying to ensure that only legal, qualified citizens vote, as Florida has enacted new 2011 voting laws to prevent voter registration fraud and cut off other pathways people have used to corrupt our electoral system recently. Democrats in Florida are now waging a media campaign to spread misinformation about the new voting law, and have even asked the DOJ to nullify it. Why would anyone object to laws that protect the integrity of our electoral system? Simply put, Democrats are desperate to remain in power in 2012, and will do anything they can to enable non-qualified voters to vote for their party, including felons, illegal immigrants and even dead people, as they have been proven to have done more frequently in the past 5 years.

Rep. Ellison give a wide range of what I find to be ridiculous reasons for trying to get his H.R. 3316 bill through Congress. Just as they are attempting to do in Florida, Ellison claims his bill is designed to stop “voter suppression.” Yes, Mr. Ellison Voter ID laws are in fact, designed to suppress voters. They are designed to suppress dead people, illegal immigrants, non-U. S. Citizens, and various other forms of non-qualified people from voting in America. I quote Mr. Ellison to make his intentions perfectly clear: “The Same Day Registration Act would require states to provide for same day voter registration for a federal election. The Voter Access Protection Act would make sure election officials cannot require photo identification in order to cast a vote or register to vote,” he said.

Mr. Ellison has also proposed another companion bill to H.R. 3316 – H.R. 3317, “To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require States to provide for same day registration.” That bill is simply designed to promote voter registration fraud, as it does not give election officials time to properly check the voters eligibility to vote on voting day. Past Democratic “Get Out the Vote” campaigns relied heavily on with-holding thousands of new registrations until the last possible minute, preventing election officials a chance to properly qualify the newly registered voters and make sure they meet the State’s eligibility requirements. That is the reason Democrats are demanding that a voter be allowed to walk up to the polls on election day and cast their votes without proving their eligibility. No ID required.

With Republicans holding a majority in the House of Representatives today, will these vote-fraud enabling bills, H.R.3316, and 3317 ever see the light of day? There have seen numerous occurrences where Congress combines several bills into one, refuses to read the bills and amendments completely, and then passes them into law, leaving the public to suffer the consequences. Did you catch that last statement, GOP and Speaker of the House, John Boehner?

Americans need to have confidence in their electoral system and H.R. 3316-17 would destroy that confidence. Desperate Democrats are attempting to corrupt our electoral system under the guise of preventing “voter suppression” that simply does not exist today. This points directly towards the fact that, as we head into the 2012 elections big debt-spending Liberal Democrats know their days are numbered, and will do anything to deny American citizens a fair set of elections in 2012 in an attempt to remain in power.

There are currently two bills in Congress that have been proposed to supposedly “fix” the current mortgage crisis. The very same mortgage crisis that was caused by big government intervention into the mortgage business sector in the first place by the wizards of Congress. Millions of honest, hard-working people are struggling to stay in their homes today. They now owe way more than their house is worth, thanks largely to Congress mandating the ignorant “everyone has a right to own a home” programs which forced lenders to hand out loans to high risk /unqualified borrowers in the first place. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac first started gobbling up sub-prime securities due to mandates they received from Congress in 2000, and the Clinton-era Housing and Urban Development Department, ( (HUD) which attempted to make housing “more affordable to minorities and disadvantaged people by using their vast (soon to be taxpayer- funded) resources to purchase massive amounts of sub-prime mortgage securities. In 2000, Fannie and Freddie held less than 2.5% of the mortgage market, then it expanded to hold over 40% by 2004. Today? Fannie and Freddie now guarantee more than 70% of all home loans in America. As foreclosures hit record highs almost every month during the past two years, Fannie and Freddie are now bleeding your tax dollars at an ever-increasing rate and the government wants to once again take action to stem the foreclosure crisis. (While also covering up the fact that their meddling in the mortgage business caused this crisis to begin with)

President Obama refused to deal with the Fannie and Freddie tax-payer funded black hole with his “supposed” Dodd-Frank Wall-Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act last year. Now the Democrats and Barack Obama are bashing the Bank of America for charging $5 a month debit card fees, which were needed to stem the bleeding caused by the Dodd-Frank bill in the first place. This is exactly why people are fed up with big government control and intervention into every aspect of our free market system today. The Dodd-Frank bill is set up to allow the U.S. Government to close all small banks in the U.S. through their fake “stress tests” and then create a central government-run banking system. Check the proof that backs up that statement from ABC News Business Blog:

“The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced its 73rd bank closure this year, pacing well behind the gargantuan number of 157 total bank closures in 2010.” (emphasis mine)

When the Federal Government closes all the small independent banks in America, who in the hell do you think will control the entire banking system then? This is exactly why Newt Gingrich constantly repeats the statement that we need to repeal the Dodd-Frank bill on day one of the new GOP President’s administration in 2013. Government control of our entire banking system is a clear and present danger to our free market system.

When we add the Federal Housing Authority to Fannie and Freddy’s percentage of all home loan mortgages we see direct government control of 90% of all U.S. mortgages! Now that the damage and wealth redistribution has been done by government intervention into the mortgage industry, we see that Fannie and Freddie are backing off of Jumbo housing loans in an article from The Real Deal Online;

Government meddling has the housing and mortgage industry in a shambles, so now they want to make the banks pay the price, which we see here:

The three entities ( Fannie, Freddy and the FHA) backed about 90 percent of home mortgages in recent months, thanks to the expanded loan limits. But the limits were restricted this month, meaning more buyers will have to turn to private banks to secure mortgages. Those loans are harder, and more expensive, to obtain. Banks would need to issue 56 percent more jumbo mortgages to fill the gap.

So what are the wizards of Congress to do to fix the very mess they, themselves have created in the mortgage debacle in America? Why, let’s propose two more government mortgage refinancing bills in Congress shall we? Current House resolution 363 is titled The Housing Opportunity and Equity Act. Current Senate bill 170 is titled the Helping Responsible Homeowners Act. Two different bills with two very different agendas, from savingtoinvest.com:

Housing Opportunity and Mortgage Equity Act (H.R. 363)

• Allows for refinancing of loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
• Both current and delinquent borrowers are eligible.
• Prohibits appraisal to establish current loan to value.
• Limits interest rate and fees borrower may be charged on new loan.

Helping Responsible Homeowners Act
(S. 170)

• Allows for refinancing of loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
• Borrower must be current on existing mortgage.
• Removes limit on current loan to value.
• Limits interest rate and fees (including loan level price adjustments and delivery fees) borrower may be charged on new loan.

Look at HR 363 above. They want to help BOTH those who are current on mortgage payments and those who are delinquent. (what about proven ability to actually pay for the loan there?) They also want to prohibit appraisals on the homes being refinanced! Who, in their right mind would ever refinance a home loan without getting an appraisal to make sure it hasn’t been destroyed or burnt to the ground beforehand? The Senate bill would seem to be a more responsible way to help folks who are under water in their home loans today, but in today’s “compromising” Congress we can bet that the final bill will continue down the path towards the “everyone deserves a home whether they can actually pay for it or not” ignorant Liberal ideology. President Obama was scheduled to give another speech about what he plans to do about the mortgage crisis last week, but that didn’t happen to my knowledge.

Pay attention as Congress tries to fast-track some form of Mortgage Refinancing plan once again in the coming weeks. Just remember the fact that, while the wizards of Congress are up in DC making wonderful speeches about their “newest fix” for the mortgage crisis plans, the fact remains that they are the ones who created the crisis in the first place. 2012 just can’t get here fast enough!